Nautiluss - Habitat

Nautiluss - HabitatNautiluss' first EP for Turbo was like a breath of fresh air precisely because it was a blast of noxious, suffocating smoke: filter-happy techno tools that could stand their ground with the most ruthless of Luke Slater tracks. Already a veteran but new(ish) as Nautiluss, Toronto-based Graham Bertie is as restless as ever, and follow-up Habitat is the pleasantly baked morning after for alpha's bacchanalian exploits.

"Depth Charge" is appropriately bassy dulcet techno, and its woozy melody matches the slovenly, almost drunken percussion. Lacking the savagery of his last release, it nevertheless shares in the same wonderfully on-the-fly sound manipulation that made his earlier work so appealing. (Just listen to the chords on "Surfeit," which slither close to the ground like they can't lift their legs any higher.) It's that thick midrange shared by the whole EP that makes these tracks feel almost like droning techno ragas. "Sunder" attempts to lift the mood a bit with a perky organ melody and overzealous handclaps. It's cancelled out by the slurred speech of "Stygian," with a droll chord progression that feels completely out of tune as a restless rhythmic framework tries to make sense of the chaos.